Colombia rebels free soldier ahead of ceasefire

BOGOTA: Colombia’s FARC guerrillas freed a captive soldier Sunday in an apparent good will gesture hours before they start observing a unilateral ceasefire. Colombians who have endured a half-century of bloodshed that has claimed 220,000 lives hope the truce will invigorate a slow-moving peace process and lead to a bilateral ceasefire with the government and eventually the end of the war. It is the last guerrilla conflict in Latin America, which has seen many of them. More than six million people have been forced from their homes. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced the month-long truce on July 8 and said it would begin at midnight Sunday.